Melville heard that you like Whales so he put a bunch of Whale stuff in your Whale book.
You can complain but being he'd been dead for a century or so he probably won't care much.
Staying at home is the norm... What are you reading?
- Thread starter Redlin5
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You can complain but being he'd been dead for a century or so he probably won't care much.
I'm kind of torn on John Dickson Carr. On the one hand I generally enjoy his mysteries and am really interested to find out the resolution. On the other the endings uniformly seem to come out of left field and I'm never satisfied with who the killer turns out to be. It doesn't help that Dr. Fell is a detective of the variety of "read the script and his first assumptions are always correct" a la Sherlock Holmes, except worse because he isn't so thorough in his examination of a crime. I also am not fond of Fell's tendency to allow murderers to get away for inadequate reasons. My favorite mystery thus far has been The Blind Barber and I don't think it's coincidence that Fell has very little presence for the majority of the story.
Reading 'Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible'. Man it really hits me hard sometimes, the way Shiraishi hates bothering people and thinks it'd be better if they didn't notice him so they could enjoy themselves.
Sad to be done with The Book of Imaginary Beings. This is something I could read daily forever, and was happy to be doing so until the book ran out of imaginary beings. It was also one of the few things I can read on the daily commute without worrying about my stop or being annoyed that I can only read so much in 20 or so minutes, since the entries/chapters are so short.
Do we talk about comics here?
Anyhoo, some decades after the Fire and Ice animated movie came out, they've made some prequel comics. And the first one is bad. Like...jay-zus. Nobody spoke like that in the film, Teegra wasn't a jungle warrior, she hadn't met Larn before, they didn't all know who Roleil and her son were. Maybe Nekron had an older brother who wore armour, in the way nobody in the film ever did, but I doubt it. Bah. Bah!!!!!
Anyhoo, some decades after the Fire and Ice animated movie came out, they've made some prequel comics. And the first one is bad. Like...jay-zus. Nobody spoke like that in the film, Teegra wasn't a jungle warrior, she hadn't met Larn before, they didn't all know who Roleil and her son were. Maybe Nekron had an older brother who wore armour, in the way nobody in the film ever did, but I doubt it. Bah. Bah!!!!!
Hells yeah! I got one right now!
I finished reading the Ironheart: Riri Williams 2016 run. I love it! Also, I don't know who did the writing for this, but there are more than a few jokes and scenes where I laughed out loud at the funny bits. The artwork on this amazing too, and every expression is readable and understandable, even if you removed the speech bubbles and text. Riri is her own character and not a "female Iron Man". The MCU version doesn't do the comic version justice, despite me liking that version fine enough. It works great as an origin story and a coming of age story too. I might just get Ironheart: Meant To Fly, because I am already addicted to this character.
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I just finished reading The Dawn of Everything by Davids Wengrow and Graeber.
A really interesting look at, and challenging assumptions about, the development and evolution of human society. I'm far too lazy to give a long description because it's a pretty weighty tome, going into it in coherent detail would be more like writing an essay than I care to do at this time of night, but here's the surviving David talking about it on YouTube
A really interesting look at, and challenging assumptions about, the development and evolution of human society. I'm far too lazy to give a long description because it's a pretty weighty tome, going into it in coherent detail would be more like writing an essay than I care to do at this time of night, but here's the surviving David talking about it on YouTube
Ironheart: Meant to Fly - A sequel to Riri Williams origin story. Granted, it's also a sequel to a Champions comic where Riri joins the team, but I didn't read that (not gonna waste time trying to track them nor pirate the issues), and it's not required to know. The comic does give you a brief glimpse midway through on what happened that's tied to a plot point in the comic. For the sake of a parallel. MtF is 12 issues and is even better sequel to the 2016 run. Riri develops further as a character, and is learning to go past her trauma. The best parts of the comic are her interactions with families, friends, and allies during the more slow burn and down beat moments. She's a genius and everything, but Riri is human like anyone else. She still has trouble with some social interactions and comes off as cold, while trying to curb that attitude. Either herself, or her mom and her friends keeping her grounded.
The artwork is once again excellent. I know they brought in a different artist this time. I can tell the difference, but it's almost similar to the 2016 run that you'd be mistaken both runs were done by the same illustrator. Riri new suit is to die for, and reminds me Super Sentai/Toku. The action is great, drawn out well, and most action scenes are easy to follow. Some pages left me a little confused, and go back a once or twice due to how the panels were placed. Otherwise, another job well done.
The weakest part of the comic is that one plot point/twist gets rushed and definitely could have used one or two more issues to flesh it out more. Riri finds out here actual biological father isn't dead. He's alive and is the leader of the Ten Rings Organization. Though he doesn't remember her, due to drugging and brainwashing. By the time of this revelation, him and his cult buddies leave and run when Princess Shuri's back up shows up. The last 3 issues takes place in Wakanda, btw. So the plot point gets semi-dropped or I assume was going to be covered in another sequel or Champions comic. The revelation does hit Riri hard, but after her little vision quest within herself, her real father being alive doesn't matter for now, because she has family and friends. She had another father that stepped up and loved her before dying. She finally learned to move past the trauma, stop being afraid, and appreciate the people around her. The people who made this did good.
The artwork is once again excellent. I know they brought in a different artist this time. I can tell the difference, but it's almost similar to the 2016 run that you'd be mistaken both runs were done by the same illustrator. Riri new suit is to die for, and reminds me Super Sentai/Toku. The action is great, drawn out well, and most action scenes are easy to follow. Some pages left me a little confused, and go back a once or twice due to how the panels were placed. Otherwise, another job well done.
The weakest part of the comic is that one plot point/twist gets rushed and definitely could have used one or two more issues to flesh it out more. Riri finds out here actual biological father isn't dead. He's alive and is the leader of the Ten Rings Organization. Though he doesn't remember her, due to drugging and brainwashing. By the time of this revelation, him and his cult buddies leave and run when Princess Shuri's back up shows up. The last 3 issues takes place in Wakanda, btw. So the plot point gets semi-dropped or I assume was going to be covered in another sequel or Champions comic. The revelation does hit Riri hard, but after her little vision quest within herself, her real father being alive doesn't matter for now, because she has family and friends. She had another father that stepped up and loved her before dying. She finally learned to move past the trauma, stop being afraid, and appreciate the people around her. The people who made this did good.
Giving Gravity's Rainbow one more go. Christ this book is dense and hard to get through. I've heard it compared to Ulysses and I personally consider that book the worst thing to happen to Ireland in the early 20th century.
The Infinite And The Divine
Thought I'd give this a go, even though it's a Warhammer 40K book, because I'd heard that it is generally well regarded and actually a comedy. A Warhammer comedy, that sounds interesting. Well, I'm about a third in and wondering when it's going to start getting funny. That said, it's a Necron book and they're essentially immortal, which makes for a fun point of view because time is of no real meaning to them. They can just casually spend a decade just to open a lock door and the events of the book take place over thousands of years, but the characters speak of them as a human being would about something that happened yesterday.
Thought I'd give this a go, even though it's a Warhammer 40K book, because I'd heard that it is generally well regarded and actually a comedy. A Warhammer comedy, that sounds interesting. Well, I'm about a third in and wondering when it's going to start getting funny. That said, it's a Necron book and they're essentially immortal, which makes for a fun point of view because time is of no real meaning to them. They can just casually spend a decade just to open a lock door and the events of the book take place over thousands of years, but the characters speak of them as a human being would about something that happened yesterday.
I remember when I used to post what I'd read in here regularly.
I'm currently reading "Stars and Bones" by Gareth L. Powell, which is surprisngly awful, alongside "City of Last Chances" by Adrian Tchaikovsky, which is reliably and reassuringly superior: Tchaikovsky's won best novel at the last three or four BSFA awards with good reason. Plus the fact he writes about two books a year. How the hell does he churn them out so quickly and keep the quality up? Either way good for him to make money and good for us for reading material, so win-win.
I'm currently reading "Stars and Bones" by Gareth L. Powell, which is surprisngly awful, alongside "City of Last Chances" by Adrian Tchaikovsky, which is reliably and reassuringly superior: Tchaikovsky's won best novel at the last three or four BSFA awards with good reason. Plus the fact he writes about two books a year. How the hell does he churn them out so quickly and keep the quality up? Either way good for him to make money and good for us for reading material, so win-win.
Warhammer is intrinsically funny, despite its attempts to make us feel like there's anything serious going on with all that grimdark mass warfare and slaughter. In fact, it's funny because of the nonstop grimdark mass warfare and slaughter.
Depends on how much the authors are in on the joke, though. Seems to have gotten more boringly serious in later years.
Another day, another exterminatus. I love the rays of thermonuclear blasts in the morning! No big deal, we've got a few million hive planets to spare, can have another few done by the end of the month. Now turn that peon into a servitor, he burnt my toast.
Waiting for Godot. This has been on my 'to read' list for a really long time for reasons I no longer remember. It was terrible. As according to the premise nothing happened but two people waiting around for a third that never comes, but it was also really pretentious and weird too. Maybe it's better as an actual play than an audiobook, but I doubt it.
I've seen it performed live. A problem every time you read a play's text rather than watch it is that you potentially lose a significant dimension of what makes it work.
I don't think it was really my thing, though. As far as I can get it, it seems to have no message, but it seems to mash in a load of stuff (psychological, philosophical, religious, sociopolitical) to make it seem like it has a message. And that is perhaps part of the appeal.
I'm reading The Boats of the Glen Carrig (1907). Everything I've read by the author, William Hope Hodgson, has always been immensely creepy and haunting. He's very good at slowly putting you on the edge of something dreadful and letting you fill in the rest.
Love me "horrors at sea" lit. Arthur Gordon Pym was great too.
Love me "horrors at sea" lit. Arthur Gordon Pym was great too.
Lovecraft was a fan of his. I've read The House on the Borderland and The Night Lands, would recommend, though they are a bit long and the language of the latter is intentionally a bit weird.